Author
Topic: How this for a business card? (Read 4546 times)

Annette, not up on California wildlife but if it were here I would definitely say that you have flying squirrels. The tell tale is two part, nocturnal activity and the rolling sounds. That is them rolling acorns or other nuts as they store them in your attic for their winter cache.If not fliers then another small rodent with a similar habit. Standard victor rat snap traps with the large yellow pan beat all other traps hands down for fliers. For bait I use a mix of commercial nut oil based blends, pecans, black walnut oil in a peanut butter base. The exact recipe is a trade secret. ;) I do not recommend straight peanut butter as it is effective only for mice. Squirrels and rats will investigate it but do not find it all that attractive.The trick to snagging fliers though is trap placement. They can be as bad as any trap shy coyote. You have to locate the exact areas the fliers are using and place accordingly. This often means the tightest spots in the attic along the outer edges in and adjacent to the soffits. Seriously, I had one job where the width of one 2"x4" was the difference. For two weeks I went without catching a single flier out of this attic. My traps were tight to the sill plate that the rafters rested on. Every night of those two weeks the client heard the little buggers running in the vinyl soffits. Finally out of frustration I got down on my fat belly and shifted the traps to the other side of the sill plate so they were down in the soffit. That very night I nailed three and closed the job three days later.I've gotten a lot better since then. I've got a job open now with eight down in the first three days.Once all the rodents are gone you are going to have to have an exclusion done on your home. An exclusion is trade lingo for a complete structural seal to prevent entry by wildlife. I can not stress it highly enough that this must be done. Once you have had a wildlife issue inside a structure that structure will continue to have a wildlife problem. It is the exact same concept as bees being att

I need to expand on the above considering the fact that snap traps (lethal) may not be legal or your choice in California. Cage (live) trapping fliers is a very iffy proposition in my book as I have found only one consistent method for doing so. The standard open set of a baited cage is not productive. In all my years of doing this I have had fliers voluntarily enter a cage a grand total of two times. That said some of my colleagues claim regular success with open cages, either they are better trappers than I but I doubt it. To make cage traps effective one must use a forced set where you leave no option but to enter the trap. You do this by first performing the exclusion on the structure while identifying the entry points that the fliers are using and leaving these points open. Once the structure is sealed, save for the entries, a modified cage trap is installed over the entries in such a way that the flier is captured as it exits. Some skip the cage and use just an excluder (one way door). I am not a fan of this method as that leaves squirrels on the outside that will attempt to chew back in. Capture and removal to a non returnable distance is the only way to stop that. Once all fliers are out of the structure then the cages are removed and the entries are sealed.Please note my use of the term cage traps. I do not use nor like the term "live trap" as it is a misnomer, especially when applied to a high strung species like fliers. Mortality is extremely high in fliers caught in cages due to stress and exposure even with frequent trap checks. My suggestion would be to check the traps each morning shortly after sun up and remove captured fliers promptly but even then expect mortality. I understand that the same applies to red squirrels from colleagues that deal with them. I don't have them here so I don't know.

A couple other items of interest.The flea that is specific to flying squirrels is a vector for the germ Rickesettia prowalski, the typhus germ. Five years ago I was called in by the CDC here in Atlanta to go trap out some in a pole yard office in East Point, GA. Two gentleman in that office contracted typhoid fever and nearly died from it. The risk is that typhoid rarely presents in the US and first world countries so it is often misdiagnosed, as it was in this case, and proper antibiotic treatment comes to late if at all.The other item is that it is estimated that somewhere around forty percent of structure fires attributed to electrical causes are the result of rodent damage to wiring.

We do not have flying squirrels out here, or least I never heard of them or have seen them. I plan on printing out all your good info though and passing it onto the pest control company that I plan on hiring to do the job.

Annette, I did some looking and y'all do have the northern flying squirrel. http://bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/courses/fall01%20projects/flyings.htm We have the southern, of course. As a matter of fact northern California looks to have the densest population of them, lucky you. It's okay that you have never seen them as I get that same comment here and they are as thick as fleas down here. The strictly nocturnal habit and limited movement of just after dark and just prior to dawn make these a very rarely seen animal. Heck, prior to my entering the field I had personally observed only one in my entire life and I grew up in the woods. They are even more uncommonly seen than bobcats.Of course my call may be wrong but your complaint is textbook for fliers. I hear it at least thrice weekly exactly as described.If you haven't hired a pro yet I would refer you to contact Steve Albano of Peninsula Animal Trapping. http://www.thegophinator.com/contact.html He is my go to on all things California and the west coast. He is on the governing board of NWCOA as the region 1 director and he would be able to refer you to a skilled operator in your area if he can't take the job (which I doubt due to distance and the fact that he is a mole and gopher specialst). I can't stress highly enough that the professional a person should hire should be a PROFESSIONAL MEMBER of NWCOA. No other organization has the standards of excellance as NWCOA.

The only thing that you may want to consider is the Garanteed Live Honey Bee removel. Seems a bit misleading could be interperated that you have a 100% sucess rate at keeping them alive or that you will never have bees again after the removel. Just an idea you may want to choose a different word kinda just doesn't set well with me from having to blow up onion sacks over the years. Remember a picture with a clear message says it all. The less said the better is always my motto.

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I tend to agree with kathyP,it's probably third party cookies in windows seven.I don't think Imageshack is pumping malware.I have downloaded and scanned some of the images and found no viruus. Pop up blockers may be getting hit with ads from imageshack though. I use firefox with adbloc plus,so I may not be seeing all this stuff happening.